Broken And Mended
by MyRedStilettosAndMySwitchblade
Summary: ** alterna verse, follows 3rd book forward, snape with an original character daughter, undetermined original character pairing as of yet ** Two broken souls, father & daughter find their way into each other's lives. When Snape takes a 12 year old who lives next to him in Spinners End under his wing reluctantly, the unknowing father and daughter begin a bond that might heal them.
1. Chapter 1

_You can say what you will, Severus. But you and I both know that this? With us? It will never work. Not when Lily Evans – Potter still has your heart, even in her death. I thought maybe you'd grow to love me, I thought maybe you'd one day look at me like you looked at her all those years, but you haven't yet, and you probably never will. I was stupid, such a stupid girl and it kills me to do this now, to walk away, just give you up to a ghost without a fight, Severus, but I can't live like this. Richard's come back, maybe he'll be a better man this time. Don't look for me, when the time is right, if it ever is, we'll find ourselves together again._

_Just know, that no matter what life brings you, Severus, there is one woman out there in this cold harsh world who will always love you. Who was there with you from begin until she just couldn't take second best anymore._

_I hope life treats you kindly, I hope that one day, I will see you again._

The letter he found when he woke to an empty house, to Janine being gone was simple, eloquent, and well thought out. He sat at his kitchen table, reading it, wondering where she'd gone, why she'd turn back to Richard, the disgusting git, of all people. And in that moment, he realized that the love unrequited he felt for Lily apparently, Janine felt for him all this time.

Her leaving hadn't been sudden, they'd been distant for some time now, after their one night of weakness, maybe a year after he'd lost Lily . And Janine had tried her best to make them work, to make him happy. The fault didn't lie within her. It lie within him, and he couldn't help but admit it as he sat here in the small kitchen of his childhood home in the harsh early morning light.

He sighed as he raked his hand through his hair. She was right. There would never be another Lily. Nobody would ever come close to her, and he generally avoided trying. And he knew from here forth, he'd continue to shut down, shut himself off and stop feeling anything, gradually.

That day turned into more days, and then those turned to months, and then those turned still to years.

He never heard from her again, and he did as she wished, made no attempts to find her, at least try and apologize for the hurt she had to have felt all that time. Instead, he focused on the sole mission, his only task now. Making sure that somehow, in some way, the Dark Lord payed what Snape felt owed when the time came. Teaching filled a lot of the lonely hours, the rest were spent in quiet contemplation or alone in his memories.

Until the summer that Fate threw two adults back into one another's paths.. He couldn't say outright that he wasn't happy Janine moved back to her family's old home in Spinners End, but he also couldn't say that it'd necessarily be deemed an act of Fate, either, because the man had faced the grim reality long ago that there would never be any room in his heart for anyone but Lily and her memory.

But when he saw the frail and pale skinned 12 year old girl with long and thick slightly curly brown hair, and the eyes.. Almost like looking into a mirror. Something in him changed when the petite and sarcastic 12 year old girl barged into his life forcefully, and he couldn't outright explain it.

And that is where this story begins...

_The Little Girl Next Door_

"Get your arse back here you mouthy little brat!" came the drunken screaming as the rather small and frail brunette took off at a run through the trees and alleys that seperated her home in Spinners End, from that of local school teacher, Severus Snape who taught at some fancy boarding school she wished she could go to, but her mum refused to send her to, even after she'd gotten owl after owl to attend said school.

Today's act of rebellion, of course, had been of course, being caught doing a magic trick for a little girl next door in the next tenement, as the little girl was scared, her mum was out drinking with Janine, Brigitte's own mum, and had left the little girl there completely and totally alone.

"Why don't you run after me you drunken lush?" Brigitte called out to her mum as she stopped on the porch of the teacher and paced a few moments, the sleeves of the too large black blazer dwarfing her almost, covering her plaid mini, the fitted and vintage Black Sabbath t shirt beneath.

She knocked boldly, called out, "Sir, can ya open the door? It's just for a minute, sir, I won't... I won't burden you." as she went back to pacing, the heavy soled combat boots she wore making heavy footfalls echo off of the walls of the exterior of the small and drab house.

Severus Snape grumbled to himself. There were two things he didn't like or take kindly to, one of them being his privacy being invaded and the other was children, for the most part.

Something about the wavering in this girl's heavily Irish accented voice had him pausing, going to the window by the front door, peering disdainfully through the curtains.

The girl continued to pace, then her shoulders stooped as she realized that most likely, nobody was home, or he was home, just didn't want some brat intruding on his summer vacation.

The sudden thrashing and crashing from her own house, her mum breaking things however, had her pausing on the stoop, sitting down, head on her knees.

The door opened. Snape wasn't ever entirely sure why he opened the door that day, he'd just sensed a great deal of fear within the frail preteen girl sitting on his stoop, biting her lip, trying to not cry as she stared vacantly at an abandoned house across the road.

"What do you want?" Snape asked stiffly as the little girl looked up and their eyes met, sending both a shock of recognition and a shiver down his spine simultaneously.

"Just to get away from her." the preteen said calmly, her hand twisting in a ringlet of dark hair as she said quietly, "I'll go."

The shouting and sound of things breaking from the direction she arrived on his porch in had him raising a brow as she said quietly, "She's drinking. Again. After she swore to me she'd fucking quit."

Being no stranger to a less than ideal homelife, he reluctantly stepped aside, let the preteen girl into his house and then said calmly, "There's tea." as he watched her walking around, looking at the shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books that lined and cramped the rather small and dark, drab and utilitarianly furnished living room.

Her fingers trailed slowly, -black polished and stubby tipped as if she habitually bit them to the quick - along the spines of the books, reading the titles silently under her breath as she continued to just bask in the silence of the house, completely ignoring anything he said until he said quietly, "You may read one."

"May I?" she asked, a slight gleam in her eyes making them warmer almost as she slid one out, brought it to the table with her where the light was better before informing him, "I don't much care for tea sir. But if you have coffee?" she asked as she added quietly, "Sorry."

The jacket she wore when he realized it, looked like one he'd had a good while back, but he'd woken one morning to find it gone, as well as the girl who'd been trying to bring him back from the edge of grief.

Maybe that's why he got curious and asked the girl as he poured two cups of coffee, when she told him she much preferred black coffee to tea, "What's your mother's name?"

"Janine."

"And your fathers name?" he asked next, eyeing her as she shrugged and took a lump of sugar, depositing it into the steaming green porcelain mug of coffee in front of her and after taking a sip finally answered, " Dunno. She never talks about him. When she's talkin, she's usually telling me what a damned mistake I was, how much I disappoint her. Tend to get into loads of trouble. "

"What's your name then?" he asked as she looked up from the book she was reading as she sipped the steaming cup of coffee and answered quietly, "It's Brigitte. I much prefer Gigi though, if it's all the same to you, sir. And your name? If you don't mind me asking?"

"Severus Snape. That jacket.. Where did you find it?"

"Back of her closet with a box of unmailed letters. Asked her about the ruddy things, got my arse knocked over. Never asked again, the next night, she burnt up the unmailed letters. Didn't get the jacket though, sir. Why? You like it?" the girl asked, dark brown eyes looking at him in curiousity.

Again, he couldn't shake the sense of familiarity in them, in her short and no nonsense often blunt answers.

Maybe it was the fact that her mum was treating her the same way he'd been treated as a child.

Or maybe it was the way she sat enraptured in his windowsill for hours after their short conversation, reading by the light of the sun, barefoot with the black combat boots discarded on the thin and wearing carpet nearby his front door.

Something about the girl reminded him of himself at that age.

He cleared his throat after some time and asked, "Any reason you ran to this house?"

Again, a short shrug as the girl continued to hum a 70's rock song he recognized by Jefferson Airplane under her breath while reading.

Finally, at about 6 pm, she shut the book firmly and stood, stretching, digging her toes around on the bare hardwood floor that seperated the den from the small kitchen, popping them noisily.

The chair beside his chair slid out noisily and the girl tapped his shoulder and spoke finally.

"The things in these books.. Can anyone do them?" she asked as she cocked her head to one side, looked at the man who had almost exactly the same onyx colored eyes as she did, who seemed to be a comfort to her, oddly enough, with barely veiled curiousity.

"Highly doubtful that you can." Snape answered curtly. Muggles weren't exactly supposed to know about magic. It was in the by laws of the Ministry, he was quite sure of it. Her own mum had been a student at Hogwarts, he had to wonder why she wasn't attending the school herself.

She looked about the age one would be when they were to start attending.

"If I play you a song on your piano, sir.. Will you try to teach me?" the girl asked, waiting, biting her nails impatiently. Of course, she wasn't about to tell him that she'd already began sort of dabbling in the art of witchcraft, of potions, thanks to a book he'd left lying around the summer before last, after she and her mum moved into the smaller house next door to his.

"I'm not allowed, so no."

"Can I still play you a song?" the girl asked, as she looked from him to the black antique piano.

"If you can actually play without a load of incessant noise, I suppose yes." Snape said as he looked at the girl, wondering why he wasn't just sending her home. Her mum had to have sobered by now, she had to wonder where her daughter went. This thought was voiced seconds later, when he cleared his throat and asked the girl, "Your mum.. Does she just let you come and go?"

The girl stopped playing Green Sleeves long enough to turn and look at him as she said quietly, " No, but I do, okay?" as she resumed playing the piano, this time playing what Severus was quite sure had to be a Led Zepplin song on piano.

"Who taught you to play piano?" he asked as she stopped again and shrugging said " I lived near this little old lady once, in Dublin, when my mum worked a bar there. She let me play her piano. Taught myself, honestly."

The door being knocked on harshly as the drunken ramblings of what Snape assumed had to be her mother and his former friend turned fling, Janine had him looking at her as her eyes widened in fear, and she shook her head no vigourously.

He opened the door and the woman on the other side gasped.

"Severus?"

"Janine."

"Have you seen a little girl, she took off from me earlier."

"I can only imagine why, if you were yelling half the things at her that you were through the door just now." Severus retorted dryly as he added, " She's not here." before shutting the door firmly.

"If you see her, tell her she got another damned letter via owl today. Tell her that if she really wants to go to that bloody school we used to go to, she'll start in the fall." Janine replied through the door, her heart hammering in her chest a mile a minute. The very thing she'd feared, as far as she'd known hadn't happened.

Brigitte hadn't discovered that she was living right next door to her own father, and had been for nearly two years now. Janine, of course, had tried to flush all things out of her life that reminded her of Severus, from that damned magic school, to their time together.

She'd had a close call when Brigitte found all the old and unmailed letters to Severus and his jacket. Luckily, she'd been able to burn the letters. The jacket, she hadn't had the heart to burn, because as much as she claimed and acted otherwise, deep down within the woman, she did love her daughter.

She just couldn't take looking at her and seeing his eyes, his smirk, hearing her speak in the calm and deliberate voice. She couldn't take being reminded of him each time she looked at their little girl.

But she'd moved them both back because the doctors at the Muggle hospitals she'd been going to in secret said that she didn't have much longer. The sickness had taken over almost 90 percent of her mind now, she could go at any day now. The disease she had was a mental one. It was probably the main reason that Brigitte's entire life had been spent in fear of her mother, though Brigitte didn't know this. She simply thought her mum was a drunk who hated her.

So in some ways, she'd been hoping that maybe her daughter had found Severus tonight, maybe they'd gotten to bond or something. Because if she went, Severus was all her daughter would have.

Satisfied that her mom was gone, Brigitte let her breath out as Severus turned to her and then asked, "Earlier.. When you asked me to show you things.. From that book.."

"It's alright sir. I'll figure it out on my own." Brigitte said as he shook his head and pointed out, "If you'll be attending Hogwarts.." before pausing and asking, "How old are you, Brigitte?"

"I'm 12, sir."

"You're already a year behind." Severus said as he took the book out and then held it out to her, adding, "I teach Potions."

She nodded quietly, opened the book and looked up, waiting, studying him intently.

The blazer draped across the back of the dark wooden ladderback chair and Snape gave an inward groan at the fitted Black Sabbath t shirt, with black and gray striped long sleeve beneath it.

He had the passing thought that if all students at Hogwarts were this easy to teach he'd actually enjoy the children more, but he kept quiet.

By midnight, the girl had went over at least the first 3 chapters and Snape shoved the book at her, and said calmly, "Be back tomorrow."

She gave a nod and slunk through the alleys she came from, back to her own house.

Climbing into her bedroom window, she flopped down onto the bed, opened the book, diligently began taking notes, writing them down into a notebook, ignoring the loud and raucous sounds of a party out in the main area of the house.

Severus Snape sat down in an old and worn down easy chair and went back over the events of the day before drafting an owl to Albus Dumbledore, apprising him of the situation at hand where the girl was concerned, and his suspicions, what he wanted done to find out if those suspicions were indeed true or false.

Then he plodded down the hallway and into his room and lie there, wondering if the sullen and frail, easily spooked 12 year old girl could actually be his daughter. Was that why Janine left?

Suddenly he felt burning anger, he felt cheated and more than anything, he wanted to know the truth.

Her words from the letter repeated in his brain like a mantra, and he had the sneaking feeling that there was some alterior motive to Janine's suddenly leaving Dublin and moving back to Spinners End with a daughter that all too easily fit into the time frame of their time together.

A daughter that felt entirely too familiar to him, that he saw entirely too much of himself at her own age in.

* * *

**Authors Note:**

**This story came to me while watching a youtube video about Snape/Lily, who happen to be my favorite pairing in the Potter fandom. I just sort of got it into my mind what if the entire time he devoted himself tirelessly to Lily, another girl did the same to him.**

**And this lead to a grief stricken failed romance on both their parts after Lily's death. When my original character's mother realized she was pregnant and that the man she loved would never love her the way she wanted, she got away. If you're curious about my original character, Brigitte, who will be Snape's daughter, there's some stuff about her on my bio.**

**Parts of it, I admit, damn it, were wanting to give Snape some sort of happiness in his life, wanting to try and write him as having to accept this strange girl into his life when the truth inevitably comes out about his being her father.**

**Snape will NOT be dying in my story, because I do feel that he should have lived, especially after everything the man went through in his life. **

**This story is set around Harry's 3****rd**** year, my original character's second year. I'll keep this going if it gets a likable reaction.**

**So whether I actually try and write more depends on you guys. But no flames, please? I've never actually written for the Harry Potter fandom and submitted it anywhere before.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Fathers Instincts_

The group of 12 year olds shouting and raising a complete ruckus next door had the normally cold and isolated cut off school teacher/wizard peering through the window at the house next door. The things they were shouting at the girl he suspected was his daughter, and the result of a failed attempt at life and normal after Lily's death.. The things they shouted at her took him back mentally to his own childhood.

He winced a little, though he didn't realize he'd done so as he continued to watch the little mob scene in front of her house. Today had been the last day of school among the Muggles for the term, so he had no doubt that the little prats in front of the nearly falling in house next door were people the girl went to school with. Before he realized it, he'd stepped onto the porch, just out of sight, was watching the scene as it unfolded, hearing clearly now the taunts and the things that the other children shouted at her.

"Crazy drunk's daughter!"

"Witch ! Witch ! You're A Bitch!"

"Maybe we should tie 'er to a stake, yeah, burn 'er?"

"She did curse Benny and he did break his leg during the soccer game today. You all saw it. She muttered something while she was standing there, sulling in the back of the crowd against the fence."

From the chain link fence in front of her small and dilapidated house, Brigitte scowled, for the most part ignoring the other kid's taunts, she was used to them by now, they'd been going on for the better part of 2 years, every since one of her school mates, Aria, found the occult book in her locker.

People often ridiculed things beyond their understanding, she'd be an idiot to lose her calm because a few of the local prats decided to tease her a little. But what really pissed her off was when one of the idiots accused her of being the reason their moron of a mid fielder slipped on the wet grass and snapped his ankle during the soccer game earlier today.

So, she'd been there. But not to cause anyone any harm. She just wanted to feel like she was a part of something for once, not a leper.

"Try it, you load of tossers! Try it! Burn me if you're so bloody brave! Do you all really think I give one shit if I'm dead or not? Do you?" she yelled as the rocks landed all around her, she stood stiff, arms crossed. Eventually, they'd get bored and move along. They normally did.

However, today, apparently, this was not to be the case. The teacher she'd been learning Potions from for the better part of 2 weeks walked over and said calmly, in a deathly quiet and firm and commanding tone, " The whole lot of you are nothing but a nuisance. Go home now before I personally find all of your parents and tell them what a fine little bunch of prats they've managed to raise."

The children all paled and whispered to themselves. This man was rumored to be a warlock, this man was dangerous, he could and might just kill them all. Everyone in town thought he was off his rocker just a hair.

The kids made a hasty retreat and the girl turned on her heels and looked at her 'mentor/temporary father figure' of sorts, a man who might well be her teacher when she finally did arrive at her new school, Hogwarts, in the fall and said quietly, "They'd have let me be in another 5 minutes, sir."

"They were pelting you with rocks, Brigitte. Come along now, it's time for your afternoon lesson. I'll also look over your .. Other homework. Your mum said something earlier about your not being such a good student in English."

Brigitte shrugged and then asked him a simple question.. "Why bother with me, sir? Don't you see what I'll turn into in a few good years, with her? It's a bloody waste, really. I'm doomed before I even really begin. The only thing I have to keep me safe is my street wise savvy, and all that'll bloody get me is maybe at best a job as a barmaid or something of the like."

He shook his head and said again in the same commanding tone he used over and over on his students while teaching at Hogwarts, "Inside. Now. We're going to continue your lessons." pointing his finger at the doorway to his house while shaking his head as he followed her inside the small and dimly lit house.

She sat down in the high backed wooden dining chair and dug around in her messenger bag, producing moments later a notebook overrun with papers in probably the most chaotic fashion Snape had ever seen, and as a teacher, he dealt with unorganized children on a daily basis almost.

But then he noted how efficiently she seemed to find things in this mess and realized that she had some kind of brute system in place, apparently.

"Wot?" she asked, taking a bite of an apple as she looked at him, waiting on him to go over her final for English. She added quietly, "I passed, barely."

" I thought an A was top mark?"

" It is, sir, but there are different kinds of A's. And mine wasn't the top marked paper of my class. Stupid Virginia Beecher." Brigitte said bitterly as she took another bite of her apple and then repeated her question from earlier. And again, Snape wasn't sure what answer was a suitable one for her, given what he suspected about her, and about how she came to be in the first place.

" If you'd paid more attention to spelling and punctuation." Snape pointed out as Brigitte nodded and said quietly, "Can't think in that bloody zoo I live in, sir."

He gave a curt nod of understanding, and then took the 'homework' he'd assigned her from 3 different subjects, the night before. To his surprise, they were all done, they were all for the most part, correct. He gave a slightly encouraging smirk as he said calmly, "If you keep this up, Ms. Brighton.. By September 1st, when you're in Hogwarts, you'll be on the same level as the others your own age."

"I hope to, sir." she muttered quietly, again sipping her coffee, again wondering why this man was taking up time with her and why she felt a sort of connection with him. And why her mum called his name in her sleep some nights.

"Those little prats.. How long have they been doing that to you?"

"Almost 2 years now, sir. I don't really give them much thought, because that'd mean I gave a damn about what they thought about me. I don't, to be completely honest. People ridicule what they can't understand. " she answered quietly, taking another bite of the apple in her hand as she read over the lesson he'd placed in front of her, sounding out a word she couldn't say properly.

Snape mulled over her answer, then watched her as she read, took notes and ate the apple, musing to himself about the strong connection he felt towards the 12 year old girl who for the most part mirrored himself in so many ways when he'd been her age.

Maybe her going to Hogwarts in the fall wouldn't be a bad thing. He'd be there, he could watch over the girl. The thought came surprisingly fast, and it shocked him when he thought it, honestly. But as quickly as it'd come, it left again. He wasn't a man known for showing favoritism in his classroom.

_'And if she's your child, Snape? What then? Surely you'll at least go easier on her than the rest?' _the man thought to himself as he shook his head at a mistake she'd made in her reciting the potion ingredients for a proper Draught Of The Living Dead.

"Sorry, sir." Brigitte muttered as she mentally chided herself, it'd been a stupid mistake, really, she hated it when she made those, those tended to piss her off more than any other kind of mistake. And she wanted to prove to the Headmaster who'd invited her to this school a year ago, when she turned 11, when she started to really show signs of being a witch, apparently, that she could and did in fact belong with the other students.

"Tell me, Brigitte, had you put in the amount you recited off to me just now, what do you think would've happened?" Snape asked firmly, waiting, as she faltered a moment and then said quietly, "The entire potion would have bubbled over, probably exploded, definitely would have eaten through a cauldron, sir." hopefully.

"And you might have killed someone, had they actually partaken of the potion." Snape said firmly as he reprimanded her and then said calmly, "Focus. Use the anger to focus on what you're learning instead of doing what your mum tells me you do and going out, getting into some fight or something." while pacing back and forth in front of her.

She nodded sharply, and he said firmly, "Again. Recite the potion again."

She began to rattle off ingredients this time, as if she knew them like the back of her hand. And then he asked her for the effects of the spell, the duration, things that had she really paid attention to minute detail within the lesson she'd have picked up on, and he found himself slightly shocked, definitely a little tug of 'fatherly pride' when she began to rattle off said things he asked for as if it were nothing.

They'd ended their lesson and he saw a light come on in her mum's home and said quietly, "Tomorrow. I want you here in the morning. It's summer now, you have entire days to devote to catching yourself up for Hogwarts in the fall."

She nodded and thanked him, pausing a moment as she said with a smallish smile, "I've something to show you, sir.."

She took out a deck of cards and did a simple trick of the mind, commonly used in Muggle magic shows all over the world, then explained how she'd done it. He nodded, stepped onto the porch, watched her retreating through the alley and into her own house before turning and walking back into his own, sitting down in the chair, going over the book he'd been teaching her out of.

"With any luck, she'll at least be on the same level to start with by September." he mused to himself as he sat trying to puzzle over why he'd actually let the 12 year old girl into his 'private life' in the first place and why really, the whole scenario he'd witnessed earlier in the afternoon bothered him to begin with.

Because deep down, he knew that it was more than her simply reminding him of himself at that age.


End file.
